Saturday, March 31, 2012

5 Things Songwriters Can Do To Move Their Careers Forward

5 Things Songwriters Can Do To Move Their
Careers Forward

As a new songwriter, you may be overwhelmed
by all there is to do when it comes to moving forward in your career. I’d
compare the approach of this article to eating the elephant one tiny bite at a
time. In other words, by being patient, organized and methodical in your daily
work as a songwriter, you’re guaranteed to make steady progress in your career.
If you follow the suggestions below, the results won’t be immediate, but when
you look back after six months or a year, I think you’ll be amazed at how much
you’ve accomplished.

1. Do One “Business” Thing Every Day. This
is the musical equivalent of eating your vegetables. They may not taste great
but they’re good for you. It’s the same with the business side of music. We all
know how much more fun it is to play the guitar, sing and even write compared to
making phone calls, sending emails or following up on something you’ve already
submitted, but if you’re hoping to have financial success with your music, then
they’re all equally important. By making the rule that you’ll do one business
thing every day means that at the end of a year, you’ll have done 365 things to
further your career above and beyond your songwriting. I guarantee that’s more
than most.

2. Join/Start A Songwriting Group. Getting yourself to write
on a consistent basis can be a real struggle. Writing is emotionally draining
and tough for most of us to do in a vacuum. Ironically, I’ve found that even we
creative types like assignments when it comes to our writing. By joining a
songwriting group where you’re required to bring in a new song or a rewrite of
an old song every week, you’ll have the additional motivation of being held
accountable by more than just yourself. It really does work. If you’re not aware
of any existing songwriting groups in your area, make it a point to get to local
writer’s nights and reach out to other writers about starting a group. By simply
showing up every week and doing the work, you’ll find your songwriting muscles
getting stronger no matter whether you agree with all the group’s suggestions or
not.

3. Don’t Wait For A Publishing Deal To Act Like You Have One. If you
find yourself thinking that if only you had a publishing deal then you could
write every day, get great demos and have your songs pitched, then I’d humbly
suggest that you’ve got it backwards. In order to get a publisher interested in
what you’re doing, you need to behave like you’ve already got a publishing deal.
This means you’ll be infinitely more attractive to a publisher if you can show
them a body of work that’s well written, well recorded and maybe even includes a
cut or two. Don’t wait around for the affirmation of a publisher to get up every
day and do the work. In fact, if you get to the point where you can do all of
the above on your own, you might look up to find you don’t need a publisher
after all.

4. Make One Song Pitch Every Week. Having exceptional songs
and beautiful recordings of those songs is a great start but in terms of getting
them recorded by other artists or placed in a film or TV show, they might as
well not exist if you haven’t shown them to anyone. I know this sounds obvious,
but, as songwriters, we get so wrapped up in the creative process that we
somehow, amazingly, seem to forget that until someone in the industry has heard
our songs, they can’t do anything with them. This means you need to begin your
search for outlets for your music. There are industry pitch sheets and
organizations out there that can help put songwriters together with industry
folks looking for songs. Make it your business (see #1 above) to find out about
these pitch sheets and begin the process of submitting your songs when you see
an appropriate opportunity. If you do this once a week, you’ll have pitched to
52 separate opportunities by the end of a year. That’s a significant
number.

5. Reply Promptly To Any Opportunity, No Matter How Small. The
likelihood of Faith Hill calling you to ask if you’ve got a song for her is
small but you should treat every email or voicemail from someone regarding your
music as that kind of top priority. If another songwriter reaches out to say
they liked one of your songs they heard you perform at a writer’s night, reply
quickly, even if it’s just to say thanks. You never know when a causal contact
could turn into something more significant. Our industry is full of stories of
songwriters getting their material cut in the least likely of circumstances. All
this is to say, there’s no percentage in ignoring or putting off any opportunity
no matter how small it may seem at the time. By acting professionally and
responding promptly to anyone and everyone who reaches out about your music,
you’ll be sure not to miss something huge that might appear insignificant at
first glance.

As I’m sure you know, there’s no one way to have success as
a songwriter. That being said, you can certainly improve your odds by staying
patient, working consistently and treating your career with the respect it
deserves